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Our family spends a lot of time together, when we can. Of course, things get in the way sometimes – errands, jobs, house repairs, and everything else that life demands of us before we get to the fun parts. So when we sit down and want to watch something together, or put something specific in the background to match the mood of our activity, we realized that cable and satellite TV just weren’t for us. DVR helped, but we really preferred the ability to avoid wasting time with commercials, and pick exactly what we want to watch instead of hoping it happened to be on tonight (so much has changed since we were young, right?!). We really just couldn’t justify the cost of the television service when it didn’t fit our needs, budget, or lifestyle.

So we did it. We cut the cord. We use streaming services. Even paying a subscription for multiple services has cut our bill drastically. Our TV is a Smart TV, but to be honest, it’s pretty slow. Bringing up menus or apps is almost worse than sitting through commercials, so we needed another option. That’s when we added a little sibling to our Google Home, in the form of a Google Chromecast. The Google Chromecast Streaming Media Player has made streaming easy, since we can go straight from our phones or our Google Home devices to the TV. It doesn’t have a confusing software system to set up or navigate, you just pick what you want, and it plays. We definitely recommend heading to BestBuy to see if it might be the perfect fit for your family, or some lucky friends, this Christmas!

Plug Chromecast into the HDMI port on your TV and to power and stream your favorite entertainment right from your phone with just a tap. Watch shows, listen to playlists, and more. And while streaming, you can still use your phone as you normally do.

Works with the streaming apps you know and love

Enjoy TV shows, movies, videos, songs, games, sports and more from over 2000 apps like Netflix, YouTube, YouTube TV, and HBO NOW. Find more at g.co/chromecast/¹

Start streaming with just your voice

Just say what you want to watch from compatible apps and control your TV hands-free, with Chromecast and Google Home working seamlessly together.²

“Ok Google, play Stranger Things from Netflix on my living room TV.” ¹

Upgrade your TV for less

Expand your home entertainment without buying a new TV. It’s so affordable you can get one for every TV in the house.

High-speed wireless connectivity

Built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi connects to the Internet through your wireless home network (wireless router required and sold separately).

My husband is a major music enthusiast. If he’s not listening to it, he’s playing it. Between his upcoming birthday and Christmas, I better start shopping early! And I’ve got the perfect first product for the list: the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones available at Best Buy!

What’s so great about the Sony WH-1000XM3? They really do just about everything you could ask for from a pair of headphones!

Industry-leading noise canceling: Sony’s proprietary HD Noise Canceling Processor QN1 brings the WH-1000XM3 to the pinnacle of noise cancellation. While mowing the yard or even getting in a workout, my husband appreciates being able to block out the other sounds and focus on the music. This is definitely a feature he will love!

Premium Sound: The 40mm drivers with Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) diaphragms are Hi-Res Audio compatible, reproducing a full range of frequencies. Anyone who plays music will appreciate the quality of sound these headphones put out!

All-day listening with quick charging: Listen all day with up to 30 hours of playback and quick charging that gives five hours of playback with just 10 minutes of charge time. My husband is a busy dad, homeschooling our boys during the day and helping out with his mother’s small business by evening. The length of charge these headphones hold is fantastic for those who not only will use them for hours at a time, but also for those who might not have time or remember to set them on a charger every night.

Smart Listening: Smart Listening by Adaptive Sound Control automatically detects your activity and balances noise canceling levels accordingly. This feature intrigues me and I can’t wait to see how it plays out in day to day listening. You also can hold your hand over the housing to turn the volume down in an instant.

What’s in the box:

Audio cable for wired connection

Carry case

Sony WH-1000XM3 Wireless Noise Canceling Over-the-Ear Headphones

USB-C charging cable

Overall, this pair of headphones seem phenomenal and perfect for my music-loving husband. I can’t wait to check them out in person at Best Buy!

Some accidents can cause personal injuries that last for years. They necessitate things like surgery, therapy, medical equipment, and more. Although it may seem perfectly natural, considering all the things that you’re going through, to give up and believe your life has lost meaning and purpose; this is a mistake. When you sink into depression, you only make a bad situation worse, ruining your own life and making everyone close to you miserable, too.

Here are five practical tips you can use to deal with your new situation without letting it get you down:

Make sure your basic needs are met.

Before contemplating what coping strategies you should adopt, sort out your basic needs. Do you have enough money to cover your basic cost of living? If not, then research what resources are available for financial assistance or at-home employment. Do you have easy access to all the medical supplies you need when you need them? If not, then use an online medical supplies service like USAMedicalSurgical.com to place an order when your supplies run low. Do you have enough emotional support to cope with your situation? If you don’t have any close family or friends, then consider joining a support group in your city to be able to share your feelings with others. And if you do have family and friends nearby, be willing to accept their help.

Avoid making yourself miserable.

The way people make themselves miserable is through negative self-talk and overidentification with all the ills and misfortunes reported in the news, on social media, and other media. Learn to catch your mind-wandering and steer it away from self-pity, reflecting on everything that’s not working, and feeling critical of people and events. Instead, steer your mind to what is working for you. Give yourself the gift of self-compassion.

There are three exercises that you can use to steer your mind in a more positive direction:

List a few things you are grateful for when you wake up, even if it’s something as simple as feeling grateful that you have a bed to sleep in and will soon have breakfast.

Scribble a letter to yourself every day for a week speaking words of empathy, hope, and faith. This daily dose of self-encouragement will coax your mind to think in a more productive way.

Read biographies of people who overcome great odds in life, making impossible things possible.

Although these three exercises may seem contrived, they will work if you stick with them long enough. Eventually, you’ll start to think in a more positive way, which will not only help you but those around you.

Notice when you’re winning.

Every time you do something that you couldn’t do before, you’re winning in life. Depending on your condition, small victories might be learning to walk a few steps more than you did a week ago or to do something else that shows that you’re making progress toward recovery.

Focus on what you can do.

Although you may feel that you can’t do much physically, there is plenty that you can do mentally. You can read a book, learn how to play chess (or learn how to play better chess), or study some skill, like math or art. Appreciate the simple fact that your mind can learn from documentaries, books, online courses, and discussions. Set some intellectual or artistic goals for yourself.

Get better at managing your stress.

The more stressed we are about something, the worse things appear to get, which, of course, stresses us out even more. The way to step out of fear, worry, anxiety, and other stressful emotions is to adopt practices like mindfulness, meditation, and contemplation. By calming your agitated nervous system, your body will have less cortisol running through your bloodstream. By focusing on the physiological aspects of stress reduction, like tensing and relaxing your muscles or breathing more deeply, your turbulent emotions will settle down. Stress can also extend to those around you, including your own children, so learning to manage your own will help them as well.

While these five practices are neither intuitive nor easy, you will get better over time at taking care of your basic needs, thinking more optimistically, noticing your small victories, focusing on what you can do, and getting better at managing your stress. You will begin to feel increasingly better about your life as these gain momentum.

When I was a teenager, I met a long time family friend of my parents who had moved to Australia years ago. She was visiting with her children, both close in age to me and I was immediately interested in the culture and beauty of the country. I thought maybe one day I could move there! Maybe it’s a dream of yours too?

Have you always wanted to move to a house in Australia and raise your family there? There are indeed beautiful and amazing house and land packages in Melbourne and other cities in Australia. However, it is not enough to just decide that you will move there with your family, especially when you have little children in your household. There are different questions that you need to ask yourself and find answers to.

Here are some questions that you need to answer before moving to a new house to ensure that the decision is the best for the entire family especially for the kids.

Is there a nearby school for the kids?

If you have kids then you know how they are always on top of your priorities. And when moving to a new house, you must first check if there is a nearby good school that you can enroll them in most especially if it is their first time to attend school. You surely want to give them good education but you also do not want to cause them stress by having them travel long hours or distance from home to school and vice versa. Therefore, you should look for a house that is near a good kindergarten or prep school.

Is it near the office or workplace?

It would also be practical to move to a house that is near your office or your workplace. This will save you a lot of time, money, and you will also spare yourself from long travel hours. You will be able to spend more quality time with your family than get yourself stuck in traffic especially during rush hour.

Is there a playground or park?

Of course it is also nice if there is a playground or a nice park for you to walk and play with your kids in. You can spend the afternoon in the park, reading books while the kids play with other kids in the neighbourhood. It will be lovely for both you and your kids.

Is the neighbourhood safe and friendly?

You should also ask the question if the neighbourhood is indeed safe. To do this, you might want to observe or do a viewing in different times of the day. You should visit in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening to see how the surroundings would look like during those hours. The area could be quiet in the morning but then when it’s nighttime, there might be a lot of fights among the neighbors, loud parties, and stuff. So of course, you want to avoid those types of neighbourhood.

Is there a police station or guard in the community?

Lastly, you would feel a lot safer if there is a guard doing some rounds day in and day out. You will be able to sleep better knowing that your family and your property is safe while you are sleeping at night.

Those simple questions will allow you to get to know the neighbourhood and the house location better. More than the style or design of the house, you should be particular about the location.

The environment and the house neighbourhood will definitely create a big impact in raising your kids. Therefore, you must ensure to buy a house not only in a beautiful location but also a location that is safe, healthy, and friendly for the family.

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Hello! I am Danielle, homeschool/working mom of a Kindergartener and a 2nd grader in northern Illinois! I have a bachelor's degree in Mass Communication, a 3rd degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and lived in Hawaii with my husband before our sons were born. Daniel and I co-write on our blog, Family Centsability, sharing recipes, printables for elementary aged kids, product reviews, and other family-friendly resources. Email us at familycentsability@gmail.com for review requests, advertising inquiries, or simply to say hello!